New wellbeing interventions in primary health care: reviewing the relational agenda

The growth in the volume and diversity of wellbeing practices as frontline service outlets poses fresh challenges for the adoption of new technical and scientific developments in health care. This short article reports the findings of a review undertaken in the United Kingdom of recent local evaluations of new social enterprises, in order to identify their formative relationships. Drawing on relational audit methodologies a gap analysis highlights three types of relationship where shortfalls hinder knowledge exchange across contemporary primary health care. The findings suggest that further research is required to understand the routes and mechanisms needed for the effective future integration of biomedical innovations into what are, in organisational terms, increasingly hybrid public health systems.